Herb smiled back. “Must be a jolly group down at the medical supply place.”
“It’s not them. It’s him.” She pointed to Brant.
“Ah.” Herb nodded as if that explained everything. “So if your brother’s not here, what’s with the wheelchair?”
“We came up with the concept yesterday,” Brant said.
“It was Brant’s idea.” Aria thought he should get credit for it. “He figured if we can get Linus used to it before Josh shows up, their first meeting would go a lot smoother.”
“But I didn’t know if we could get one on a Sunday morning. Aria pulled that off.”
Herb glanced at her. “I have a feeling you can do about anything you set your mind to.”
“Thanks, Herb.” She was grateful for that kind of support. “I hope you’re right. I didn’t anticipate Josh being so stubborn.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Herb waved his hand as if dismissing the problem as unimportant. “Sometimes people react just like horses. Leave them alone, give them time to think about the situation, and they might become more cooperative.”
“That’s pretty much what Brant said.” Maybe it would work with that cowboy, too.
“Mind if I watch and see how it goes? I’m kind of curious, myself.”
“Of course you can. You and Rosie have been so supportive through all this. I can’t thank you enough.”
“Just teach Rosie to make coq au vin and you can board Lucy and Linus here as long as you want.”
“Okay.” She loved seeing the twinkle in his eyes.
He turned back to Brant. “This wheelchair won’t roll worth a damn on gravel, will it?”
“I was just going to carry it into the barn.” He paused. “But I see what you mean.”
“I hadn’t thought that through, either,” Aria said. “When Josh comes out here, I’ll need to drive the van right up to the door.” She’d wanted him to watch Linus run in the pasture, too. Navigating over there could be tricky.
Herb rubbed his chin and looked around. “We’re not exactly wheelchair accessible at Thunder Mountain Academy.”
“Please don’t worry about it on Josh’s account.”
“He’s the reason I’m thinking about the issue,” Herb said, “but there’s more to it than that. What if we had a visiting parent who uses a wheelchair to get around? Or maybe even an instructor who needs one?”
“It wouldn’t be that tough to figure out.” Brant lifted his hat and set it more firmly on his head. “You might have to pave some walkways and have Damon and Phil build a few ramps. A long weekend would be enough time to finish everything.”
Herb nodded. “I’ll talk to Rosie. I’m surprised she hasn’t thought of it.”
“If you need to retrofit the area for wheelchair access, that’s fine,” Aria said. “But please don’t rush into it because of Josh. For one thing, he might assume you’d done it for him.” She shuddered to think what Josh’s reaction would be to freshly poured asphalt paths and recently constructed ramps.
“I agree that seeing new ramps could make him self-conscious, no matter how we explained it.”
She sighed in relief. “Thanks.”
“But thinking about Josh’s visit was a good thing. We have an issue that should be addressed. In fact, I wouldn’t mind talking to Josh about it when he comes out. He might be able to offer some suggestions.”
“Um, maybe.” Her brother had a long way to go mentally before he’d be willing to consult with Herb on making Thunder Mountain wheelchair accessible.
“Enough about that.” Herb’s smile told her he understood her misgivings. “Let’s get this experiment with Linus underway.” He glanced at Brant. “I’m guessing you have a procedure in mind.”
“I do.” Brant hoisted the folded wheelchair under one arm and they all started toward the barn. “We want Lucy and Linus to accept the wheelchair, but we also want them to understand its function. I’d like Aria to be sitting in it when I roll it into the stall. That way they can see it’s a method for carrying people around.”
“I can do that,” Aria said.
“Then we might as well start here, at the entrance.” He unfolded the wheelchair and placed it on the barn floor. “Hop in.”
“Okay.” The footrests were in the upright position, so she stepped past them before turning and sitting.
“Lift up your feet.” He adjusted the footrests so she could prop her boots on them.
Settling her feet on the metal footrests disoriented her in a way she hadn’t anticipated. No part of her was touching the ground. That also was true when she was driving a car, but there she felt more in control. “I’ve never sat in one of these before.”
“You never tried out your brother’s?”
“No.” And she hadn’t wanted to, either. Sitting in his chair would mean looking at the world from his perspective. She’d resisted that, maybe because she was so determined to get him out of that chair. “I should have, though, to find out what it’s like for him. It feels weird.”
Brant crouched in front of her, his hat tipped back and his expression gentle. “How so?”
“I just had this flash of ‘what if this was the only way I could get around?’ I take up more floor space, but I’m low to the ground. I have the view of an eight-year-old.”
He nodded. “I’ve had people tell me that you get dismissed when you’re in a wheelchair. Maybe it’s because you’re the same height as a kid.”
Herb made a sound of impatience. “People shouldn’t dismiss a kid, either.”
“They shouldn’t,” Brant said. “But they do.” He put his big hand on her knee and squeezed gently. “Are you freaked out by being in this chair?
“Not freaked out. But...” She met his gaze. “I’m learning some things.”
“That’s always a plus.” He squeezed her knee again. “Ready for me to push you down to the stall?”
“Shouldn’t I roll myself?”
“This is just an experiment to see how Linus reacts to a person he knows while she’s sitting in a wheelchair. You’d only have to push yourself if you needed to build up your muscles.”
She had a sudden image of Josh’s biceps. The rest of him was getting soft, but his arms were worthy of a bodybuilder. He had handle grips on his wheels and he used them to spin himself across the room.
Glancing down at the wheels on this one, she saw the same grips. “I want to roll myself.”
“Okay.” Brant stood and moved away from the chair. “Off you go.”
She wasn’t very efficient at it. Now she appreciated how effortlessly Josh zipped around his little apartment without crashing into the furniture. “Sorry I’m a slowpoke.” She glanced up at Brant, who seemed ten feet tall from this angle. “Would you rather just push me?”
“I’m not in any hurry.” He looked over at Herb walking on the other side of her. “You got any pressing engagements, Dad?”
“Not at the moment. Rosie and I are heading to the grocery store in a little while, but right now I’m free. And by the way, Aria, she really appreciated your help with the menu.”
“Glad I could do it.”
“I think knowing that these kids’ parents are paying for their meals puts a different spin on things for Rosie. Back when she was feeding the boys, she relied on simple recipes and made sure to cook plenty of everything.”
“Like tuna casserole,” Brant said. “One of my absolute favorites.”
Herb laughed. “They were all your favorites, son. You just plain love food. Rosie got the biggest charge out of your enthusiasm at the table.”
Aria started to say that Brant was still enthusiastic at the table but decided that was a comment best not made.
“I do enjoy my food.”
She looked up and caught his cute little smile. Maybe he was thinking about cherry pie. So was she, but she also realized how much she wanted to cook for him. Given her passion for feeding people and his for being fed, they should really carve out some time
to make that happen.
While Herb and Brant reminisced about Rosie’s old standbys and who had been partial to which one, Aria began planning what she could fix for him if she ever got the chance. It might work out that she could do that some evening, even if the students were here. Potential menus scrolled through her mind.
She was so involved in dreaming about food that she was surprised to discover they’d arrived at Linus and Lucy’s stall. Without thinking, she started to get out of the wheelchair.
Brant put a hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be better if you stay there.”
“Oh, right. I forgot for a minute.” She wondered how many times Josh had forgotten, tried to get up and then realized he couldn’t do it. The next time she saw him she’d be much more understanding about the difficult adjustments he’d had to make.
“The straw is going to keep the wheelchair from rolling easily,” Brant said, “so why don’t I push you in?”
“Good idea. That way you can decide how fast or slow to do it. I don’t want to go lurching in there and scare them because I’m clumsy.” She felt in her pockets. “Shoot, I forgot carrots.”
“I’ll go get some,” Herb said. “Carrots for Lucy would be helpful in this situation in case she starts thinking she has to protect her foal from the scary wheelchair.”
“We’ll wait for you,” Brant said.
“Be right back.” Herb started down the aisle at a fast clip.
Brant crouched in front of her again. “How’re you doing with this contraption now?”
“Better. But I don’t have to stay in it, which makes a huge difference. And what really bothers me is that Josh doesn’t, either. Some people have no choice and they have to adapt, but he could go back to PT, work harder, get out of this thing and walk again.”
“Steady.” He rubbed his hand back and forth over her thigh. “You’re shaking.”
She hadn’t realized it. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and blew it out. “Sorry.” She opened her eyes again. “Me getting upset won’t help Linus adjust to the wheelchair.”
“No.”
She looked into his eyes and soaked up the kindness and understanding she found there. “I wish I had your patience.”
“He’s not my brother.”
“He needs to get out of that wheelchair. I can’t help thinking that the longer he’s in it, the harder getting out will be for him.”
“Maybe he’s just not motivated yet.”
“That’s where Linus was supposed to come in.”
Brant smiled. “Give that little foal a chance. He’s only two days old.”
“You’re right.” She smiled back. “But Josh needs to visit Linus before Herb and Rosie start making the place wheelchair accessible. If I bring him after, he’ll be mortified. He won’t even let me get the special plate for my van.”
“But with the setup as it is, he’ll be pretty much confined to the barn.”
“I know. If I could coax him out of that thing, even if he has a walker, he could maneuver around the area and watch Linus romp in the pasture.”
“Considering what you’ve told me about Josh, I can’t imagine him going for the walker.”
“Yeah, he announced months ago that was a nonstarter. I’ve brought it up a few times since then and he gives me the stink-eye.” She sighed. “But he simply can’t stay in that chair. It’s unacceptable.”
“For you or for him?”
She understood the subtext. Long ago she’d admitted to herself that extricating Josh from the wheelchair was partly for her sake. As long as he was in that chair, her world would feel out of balance.
She was okay with knowing her motivation had selfish overtones. Achieving her goal would be a win-win situation. “For both of us.”
15
BRANT DIDN’T THINK pushing Josh to visit the ranch was a good plan, but he admired the heck out of Aria’s dedication to her brother’s welfare. Even though Josh had rejected her efforts, she wasn’t about to give up on him. Still, a more measured approach might get better results.
As he debated whether to say anything more, Herb came back with Rosie. Turned out she wanted to watch, too. Everyone chatted while Aria stuffed the carrot pieces in her pockets.
Brant chatted, but his mind wasn’t on the conversation. Instead he thought about the steely determination in Aria’s expression when she’d said, “It’s unacceptable.” If she took that attitude with Josh, chances were good he’d dig in his heels. Her motives were pure, but her methods could cause everything to blow up.
Last night he’d slipped in a comment about backing off to see if Josh came to her. She’d sounded interested in that option. Herb had said essentially the same thing this morning and she’d seemed receptive.
But that was before she’d spent time in the wheelchair. Hindsight was twenty-twenty. He should have put himself in the chair because he wouldn’t have had an emotional reaction to it. He’d also assumed she would have been curious enough to try out her brother’s months ago, but she hadn’t.
He’d been going on his own experience. In his junior year a basketball teammate had been temporarily confined to a wheelchair following a skiing accident that broke both his ankles. But Steve had attended every practice, so afterward they’d transferred him to the bleachers and taken turns rolling around the gym in his chair for the hell of it. Next season Steve had been back on the floor.
Putting Aria in the wheelchair today had seemed like a no-brainer. Linus was her colt so he’d thought she’d want to be the person who taught him that the strange object wasn’t scary. In making that decision, he’d apparently increased her feeling of desperation right when she needed to simmer down.
Maybe it would be okay. He hoped so. But the first step was to find out if the metal apparatus would freak out the mare and colt. Grasping the handles of the chair, he pushed it slowly through the open stall door as he watched the horses’ reaction.
Lucy and Linus eyed the chair and backed away, but Aria began talking to them in a soothing voice. “It’s just a silly old wheelchair. Nothing to be worried about.”
Brant wasn’t too concerned about the wariness shown by both horses. Lucy was smart to be alert to any potential dangers now that she had a foal to protect. Linus picked up on her caution and peeked out from behind her.
“I brought carrots, Lucy.” Aria placed one on her palm and held it toward the palomino mare. “I know how much you like carrots, girlfriend.”
Lucy gazed at it and snorted.
“You have to come over here if you want some. And bring that little guy with you, okay? He can’t have carrots yet, but I’d love to give him a scratch.” Aria continued to talk softly to both the mare and foal.
Lucy held out a little longer, but eventually she walked over, stretched out her neck and took the carrot.
“Next time you’ll have to come closer.” Aria rested her arm on the wheelchair. “It’s okay, Linus. I know you’re curious. Look, your mom’s fine with this shiny thing. You should investigate it.”
Brant stood very still as both mare and foal came up to be scratched and petted. Then Linus surprised the hell out of him by walking past the wheelchair toward him to get some attention. Crouching, he rubbed and stroked the colt’s soft coat. “You’re brave, Linus,” he murmured. “I kinda figured you would be, kiddo.”
“I’m out of carrots,” Aria said. “What next?”
“Let’s hang here a little longer. Then I’ll pull you back out. That might startle them, but I hope not.” He continued to caress the foal. Linus didn’t seem to mind the wheelchair at all.
Lucy was more concerned about it. Now that the carrots were gone, she’d edged away. Soon Linus noticed and followed her to the other side of the stall.
“That’s good enough for now.” Brant stood. “I’ll wheel you out slowly, but they still might react now that it’s moving.”
They didn’t, though. He was gratified to see that they stayed where they were and merely watched as he wheel
ed the chair back out the stall door. “Excellent.”
Herb latched the door. “I think they’ll be fine.”
“Me, too,” Rosie said. “How long did you rent that for, Aria?”
“A week.” She reached down, flipped up the footrests and got out as if eager to escape the chair. “I wasn’t sure how long it’d take.”
“I wonder if we should see how the other horses do with it if we plan on making the academy wheelchair accessible.” Rosie glanced at Brant. “What do you think?”
“Good idea. We could start by taking it out to the pasture right now. The surface won’t be great, but we’d have more room to maneuver it and see how they react to that.”
“Now would be a good time since we’ve been dry for a few days.” Herb glanced at his watch. He had a phone, but he never used it to check the time. “I wish we could stick around to see how that goes, but we should take off if we expect to be back for lunch. That shopping list’s longer than my arm.”
“We have a lot of mouths to feed.” Rosie squeezed Aria’s shoulder. “Thanks again for helping plan the menus yesterday. And I won’t forget the pearl onions and mushrooms for Tuesday night’s cooking lesson.”
“I’m not about to let her forget those,” Herb said. “In fact, I’ve decided I should learn to make this meal right along with the rest of you. Cooking together sounds like fun.”
Rosie grinned. “He’s saying that because he wants to keep an eye on me when I flame the brandy.”
“That, too.” Herb wrapped his arm around her waist. “Come on, lady. Let me take you out for a big morning on the town.”
“Ooo, ooo! Can’t wait!” She winked at Brant and Aria before leaving the barn with Herb.
Aria gazed after them. “Is it my imagination, or are they flirting a lot more?”
“They’re definitely flirting more than they were before the coq au vin. It’s great to see.” He never intended to get married, but lately he’d become more aware of how happy his foster parents were after all these years. Unless he changed his trajectory, he’d never know what that was like.
Cowboy All Night (Thunder Mountain Brotherhood, Book 5) Page 15